Clarion University’s Master of Science in Library Science has received continued accreditation from the American Library Association. The accreditation is for seven years, the maximum length. ALA’s Committee on Accreditation made the announcement last month at the association’s annual meeting in New Orleans.

The successful accreditation of the department’s MSLS program is a result of a two-year self-study process by the department’s faculty and staff, culminating in a 200-plus-page report in which the department’s planning processes, curriculum, faculty, students, physical resources and administrative support were described and analyzed as required by the detailed COA accreditation guidelines.

COA accreditation standards are extremely rigorous, which is one of the reasons that there are only 61 accredited master’s programs in the field of library science in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Canada. Clarion’s MSLS has been continuously accredited since 1973-74 when, under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Rupert, former dean of the College of Library Science, the program received its initial accreditation.

The fact that the program was able to achieve and maintain its accreditation, without blemish, since then is even more remarkable considering that most of the other accredited programs are at major research universities where faculty numbers are large, teaching responsibilities are low and staff support is generous.

The department of library science has an undergraduate student population of approximately 70 students and a graduate student population of approximately 300 students, making it the largest graduate program at Clarion.